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The Work: Private view

CREATIVES - Sam Bishop, Mike Eichler, junior creatives, Dare

October 01, 2010

How long?

5-7 minutes

Neil Young doesn't do compromise. When an audience turned up expecting
to hear Heart Of Gold, he played Tonight's The Night. When they booed,
he played it again, twice. He has walked out on tours, fired his friends
and buried his own recordings in a field so that no-one can hear
them.

We know that we have to compromise - our work is a balancing act. The
Weetabix (1) ad seems to fall down, though, because of a compromise on
what they actually wanted to say.

The spot is for the new chocolate variety. It features pets talking to
each other at breakfast time, discussing the taste and sugar content of
the product. If animals could talk, and this is what they wanted to talk
about, you'd be gutted, wouldn't you?

The ad is missing the humour that made "steeplechase" so compelling, and
the double message of "chocolatey" and "healthy" feels complicated. We
would have liked to see something simpler and more fun.

The animal theme continues with Ikea (5) letting a hundred kitties loose
in their Wembley branch. It's a simple idea: cats love climbing on
furniture and Ikea has lots of it. The products feature in every shot
without it feeling like they are being stabbed into your eyes. As the
cats snuggle down, you start to get a nice homely feeling.

The tone of voice is a complete departure, however, from previous Ikea
work and we were left wondering if they could have treated the piece in
a more light-hearted way, particularly as the idea is so quirky. The
competition (guess which furniture the cats liked best) ties in nicely
and doesn't feel like it's stuck on the end of the campaign, so no
compromise there. Did they use the cats in the catalogue itself? We hope
so.

Uh-oh, autumn is here and it might be time to invest in a SAD lamp
because John Lewis (4) isn't doing much to lift our spirits. Its new
campaign features the strapline "autumn, now in" and is essentially the
same poster three times. The models and locations look beautiful, but
there is nothing to engage you emotionally. Fallen autumn leaves tie all
the posters together but are too literal - there's no idea behind
it.

Jack Black plays Gulliver in the new Orange (6) cinema ad, the latest in
the long-running "don't let a mobile phone ruin your movie" campaign.
Savaging corporate sponsorship and sending up mobile phones as
"glorified walkie talkies" shows Orange is a confident brand which
doesn't take itself too seriously. By the end, Jack is hoisted like a
marionette and made to perform a dance by the Lilliputians. They could
have made more of a struggle with his body size here to add to the
humour, but we enjoyed it anyway. The Lilliputian sign spinner was also
a nice touch.

Sticking with the film theme, the new Mini Countryman (3) spot bears
more than a passing resemblance to The Italian Job. In this version
every turn that the car makes splits it in two. This is repeated over
and over until the city is filled with Minis, hurtling around narrow
streets. Multiplied "somethings" in TV ads always look nice but in this
case there doesn't seem to be a reason behind it. This one is going to
look better on a director's reel than a creative's.

Our final review is for "Youtique" - an online interactive shop from
French Connection (2). Louise Rose presents videos in which the clothes
are sorted by activities. So if you need a wedding outfit or something
to wear to a gig, the choices she offers will be tailored accordingly.
This makes a nice change from choosing clothes by colour or garment, and
makes us wonder if they factored in how hot or cold you will get at the
event. At the time of writing the "Youtique" has yet to launch, so it's
difficult to assess but the idea seems interesting and, if it is
executed as well as "This is the man/woman", it won't be left in a
compromised position.

That's it for us. The rest of this article is buried in a field near
Watford.

PLANNER - Rachel Hamburger, graduate trainee 2010, DDB

Only three weeks into the job, and it's hard not to feel like a bit of
an obnoxious little upstart when I'm feigning authority and critiquing
the meticulously thought-through work of experienced admen, but here
goes my attempt.

The latest Orange (6) ad with Jack Black follows the well-established
formula of its "don't let a mobile ruin your movie" campaign and, true
to form, it's an entertaining take on the theme. My only problem with it
is that I remember the thrill of seeing Orange's early ads in this
category and appreciating the clever execution of the message. A few
years on, though, they might be in danger of feeling a little too
predictable.

Anecdotally, John Lewis (4) is a store that I tend to associate more
with a slightly older generation but, in this press campaign, I get the
sense that it is pushing away from "outdated" and reinforcing itself as
a "classic" brand. This is neatly executed in this campaign and the
retro feel with a contemporary finish makes for a crisp aesthetic that
conjures up comparisons with Edward Hopper's paintings. There are few
things that could take the edge off waving goodbye to the summer and
ushering in the autumn months, but this ad goes some way towards it.

Another one that fills me with autumnal warmth is Mother London's first
effort for Ikea (5). I'm not a cat-lover, but it's impossible to ignore
the charm of this ad and its sweet soundtrack. One hundred cats running
round an Ikea store, just like a moggy might run round my own house but
on a much grander scale. I can't help but feel the real genius lies in
the fact that it raises so many questions...

Did that little ginger cat knock any of the brightly coloured lamps off
the shelves? How did they herd all the cats together at the end of the
shoot? It's perhaps for this reason that the online documentary "herding
cats" has already received more than two million YouTube hits (more than
the ad itself). Clawing its way into viral video charts, the ad has
successfully capitalised on the online community's penchant for all
things feline, though curiously the tagline "happy inside" is something
that might just as well be used to sell natural bio yoghurt. All things
taken into account, though, I would judge this ad to be a resounding
success.

Continuing on the animal theme, the talking animals of "happy breakfast"
from Weetabix (1) have an undeniable appeal, and the strategy behind it
appears to be clear, targeting those who want to maintain the health
benefits of Weetabix but are looking for something a bit more to
stimulate the breakfast palate.

This ad wouldn't necessarily jump out at me but I couldn't help raising
a smile after watching it.

Next, the ad for the Mini Countryman (3) is fast-paced, energetic and
youthful and, as an eye-catching spot with exciting visuals, it's a
success although it might suffer from comparisons with Vauxhall Corsa's
"hide and seek" ad of a couple of years back. The message of Mini's
versatility is expressed as the car passes through varying landscapes as
part of a "getaway" but, in my view, the single-minded message is at
risk of being obscured by the multitude of other things going on in the
spot.

Ending on digital, the distinct advantage of French Connection (2)'s
aptly named "Youtique" is that customers can receive personalised
recommendations and are given opportunities to buy just as they would in
store, but importantly in this private online experience, they are
spared the presence of an overbearing sales person. French Connection
isn't the first campaign to combine video with opportunities to click
and buy; both Thomas Pink and Marks & Spencer's websites host videos
that employ similar technology. However, the use of YouTube and its
annotations feature is innovative and has the potential to provide
French Connection with ongoing opportunities for PR.